To Council: Not all neighborhoods equal

The city of Albany must step up its efforts to repair the growing number of unsafe abandoned buildings, Albany resident Grace Nichols told the Albany Common Council Monday night.

“We have unequal city services, and when you allow inequality to take place in a community, you’ve created a division, and it further dis-empowers a community that is already low-income and already facing some struggles,” said Nichols.

Abandoned building in the West Hill area sporting a message that claims unequal city services are being provided. Photo by Grace Nichols.

“The longer we don’t do anything to stop the blight, it’s going to keep extending towards Pine Hills,” said Dominick Calsolaro, a common council member who lives on Clare Avenue.

The escalating rate of abandoned buildings is a result of more investment uptown than in downtown, said Lynne Jackson, of 223 South Swan St.

Nichols lives on Elk Street between Quail Street and North Lake Avenue and has been a resident of the West Hill neighborhood for four years. She said that West Hill gets less attention and revitalization than other Albany neighborhoods, such as the Pine Hills.

“The result has been that on blocks like mine, there is a disproportionate amount of abandoned buildings,” said Nichols.

She took issue with the fact that there are many children in her neighborhood that are relegated to playing in areas that are surrounded by unsafe vacated buildings, and that sometimes these buildings even serve as a play area for the children.

An abandoned house in the West Hill neighborhood. Photo by Grace Nichols.

Crumbling concrete stairs, low hanging wires which may still be live, a buildup of garbage in the surrounding areas of these vacated buildings, and an infestation of wild animals are some of the hazards that Nichols considers a violation of public health. Chief among these hazards are the threat of the unstable buildings collapsing. She gave an example of how in the previous week, a glass window fell from the top floor of a vacant building on her street and hit multiple children as they played in the area.

Nichols had a few programs in mind that she asked the council for that could help put an end to poverty in the area that leads to poor living conditions and ultimately, houses in disrepair.

Low-hanging wires outside of an abandoned house in the West Hill neighborhood. Photo by Grace Nichols.

“Youth programs, job-training programs, literary programs, training to take civil service exams…those bedrock economic educational services are really what’s going to address some of the misery that is here,” said Nichols.

Abandoned buildings, said Calsolaro, are a “major issue on the South End.” Calsolaro noted that the three major minority districts of Albany-namely West Hill, Arbor Hill, and the South End are overrun with these vacated buildings. He said that there are exactly 852 buildings on record in the city of Albany listed as abandoned, and that these buildings are left abandoned when building codes are not enforced.

“We’re looking for a greater social economic investment by the city in our communities and raising our service level to the standard of Pine Hills,” said Nichols. -30-

5 Responses

People should open their eyes and realize the blight has already spread. There are abandoned homes in the upper wards and the situation is getting worse. Dominic, please note it has spread beyond Pine Hills

I know the blight has already spread beyond Pine Hills. The point I was trying to make was that about 15 years ago, a group of South End concerned citizens went to the Jennings administration with pictures of abandoned buildings in our neighborhoods and told them if the blight was not addressed in our area of the City, it was going to move westward. Sorry to say, our prediction has been proven correct. When you have a chief executive who has no vision for improving life in the City, you get abandonment as people move to places where citizens’ concerns are addressed in a positive rational manner.

I work in the South End, I grew up in West Hills, I am currently a resident of the city of Albany. There are way too many abandoned houses in the city. People who visit Albany tend to make a lot of negative comments about our appearance. We need to at least try to do something about it. Even Pine Hills is becoming run down because of grredy incompetent landlord who rent their property to rowdy college students.

How about going after those greedy landlords, too?? I saw some absolutely DISGUSTING aptmts w/my daughter recently who wants to move to Albany. My family owns property, and we would NEVER have apts as gross,old,falling apart, closets made into “bedrooms”, and filthy as the ones we saw in Albany!! An average Cape Cod house we saw, had SEVEN apartmts carved into it!!!! Steepest stairs I ever saw!! No fire escape ladders! C’mon Albany, make these landlords PAY up and repair the sh**holes/firetraps we saw!! At an average of $925 for a 1-bedrm, HORRIBLE and s/b PROSECUTED for firetraps.

If Pine Hills is getting any special services that other parts of the city are not it is news to me. We have an active and dedicated neighborhood association that gets out there and works. We clean our streets, shovel intersections, installed bike racks on Madison Ave, work with businesses and do whatever else needs to be done.

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